Do you ever wonder about those drivers who cut you off, swerve into your lane, zoom through stop signs or otherwise break the law: How in the world did they pass their driving test?

It’s possible they didn’t.

A scheme that took root in or around 2010 at the Department of Motor Vehicles offices of El Cajon and Rancho San Diego resulted in hundreds of standard and commercial driving licenses being granted to people who failed or never took their driving tests. Applicants “who were unwilling or unable to pass the required DMV written and driving tests would speak with the recruiters. … If they paid the fee, they would not have to take any of the required tests in order to receive a license,” federal court records state. The arrangement “created a significant public safety risk,” the records continue.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen anything like this,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Orabona.

Last week nine people were charged with bribery and conspiracy, including a DMV supervisor, Jesse Mario Bryan, 36. Thursday, four defendants were arraigned. If convicted, they face prison time and fines of up to $250,000. Last May, 21 others involved in the same scheme were indicted; several of those defendants have since pleaded guilty.

In complaints for both related cases, investigators describe a two-tier scheme where members of the public bribed purveyors of illegal licenses, and where these middlemen bribed DMV employees for the licenses. The investigators offer some colorful details: furtive glances exchanged between alleged co-conspirators, flurries of text messages that discussed timing and pricing, and cryptic shorthand.

The text messages also suggest that the alleged participants put profits over safety: In one exchange from December, 2011, a DMV driving exam proctor named Jim Bean allegedly noted that a fake license applicant was a poor driver. “She gonna kill someone,” he wrote, a court record states. The man who was selling the woman the license and bribing the DMV replied, “Oh, I didn’t know. She said I’m driving ok. If u want u can skip it.” Bean, the DMV employee, immediately wrote back: “I need cash so as long as she gets help.” The recruiter then paid the DMV employee for a passing driving test score, court documents allege.

DMV officials declined to comment.

Here’s how this underground market, which produced hundreds of illegal licenses, operated:

Investigators found that from December 2010 or earlier, to April 2012, license applicants were allegedly invited to pay between $400 and $3,000 for the privilege of skipping written and behind-the-wheel driving tests. A cut went to DMV examiners and a cut went to the people who recruited the license applicants, which included a driving instructor and his assistants. In all, the bribes surpassed $100,000, an FBI investigation found. Complicit DMV employees reportedly received around $20,000 of those bribes.

DMV auditors got wind of the activities when they discovered several “highly suspicious” transactions starting in December 2010. “Despite the fact that the written and driving tests for Class C licenses should take at least 20 minutes each, DMV auditors found multiple transactions involving BRYAN, and others, where an applicant completed the entire license application process (from completing the initial application, to taking the applicant’s photograph, to completing the required tests) in under 30 minutes,” the federal complaint states.

The FBI’s investigation involved a sting operation, a wiretap, inspection of surveillance footage and DMV records, one-way recorded interviews, and turning some of the alleged co-conspirators against one another. In the six-month sting operation, undercover agents bought four standard licenses for $500 each, the complaint states. One of the recruiters assured an undercover agent not to worry because he had done this “many, many times.”

Among the alleged transactions:

• In October 2011, Saleh Almuzini failed prior driving tests and purchased a license for $500. Almuzini came in to take the test again. Before he did, one of the DMV test administrators, a man named Jim Bean, sent a text message to the person who sold Almuzini the fraudulent license: “Make sure they don’t look obvious and take the wt (written test) in two min(utes) and turn it in,” he instructed. Twenty minutes after Almuzini left, he was assigned a passing score in the DMV’s computer system.

• In January 2012, Hassan Althani failed the written test two days in a row. The following week, a DMV computer was accessed after hours to enter a passing score for Althani. Surveillance video showed Bryan working at a computer at the time the test score was entered.

• Frank Attiq failed four written tests over an 18-month span. After he failed his last exam in January 2012, Attiq and one of the fake license recruiters, Kuvan Piromari, talked on the phone more than 10 times in five days. The next morning, Attiq’s written test score received a passing grade at the El Cajon DMV, his driving test requirement was waived and he received a standard license — though surveillance videos never showed him setting foot inside the DMV. When investigators interviewed Attiq, he became hostile. “This is crazy, you guys are investigating a driver license!” he said, according to court records.

Commercial applicants allegedly got more than licenses for their payment: they also obtained certifications for transporting hazardous materials and other special cargo.

For example, in December 2011, Matthew Elliott allegedly took and failed five written tests, including three specialized commercial tests (on subjects including airbrakes and “general knowledge”). That same day, he was given passing scores for each test. Elliott sold his truck to get the $2,000 bribe he needed to obtain his commercial license, he later told investigators.

At the El Cajon DMV on Graves Avenue on a recent afternoon, people had harsh words for those who allegedly bought the illegal licenses.

“That’s crazy! And it’s not really fair to everyone else, especially people who wait in line,” said Danielle De La Torre, 23, who said it took her about two hours, spread over two separate days, to get her license renewed. “There’s a reason we have the test,” she added.

It is unclear how many of the phony licenses are still in wallets around the county. Orabona did not respond when asked if people who obtained the illegal licenses could still be driving.